Exam Management Tutorial

How an exam moves

Sign in as a user who can open Exams in the left menu. School Admin and Principal can complete every step. A teacher usually works on question papers, exam-day attendance, and marks for the classes assigned to them.

Do the steps in this order. Later steps stay blocked until the earlier ones are finished.

1. Register the exam and choose which grades it covers.
2. Set the grading scale that turns a percentage into a letter grade.
3. Build the datesheet, check it, then publish it to students.
4. Choose halls and seat every exam day.
5. Set who is allowed to sit, then print admit cards (roll-number slips).
6. Assign teachers to write question papers and collect the files.
7. On exam day, mark who was present. Absent students cannot receive marks.
8. Give answer scripts to a checker, enter marks, lock them, and approve them.
9. Pay the paper setter and the checker through Finance.
10. Preview result cards by section, then publish all ready grades or only the grades you choose.
11. Read Results & Analytics and the stage summary to see what is still open.

Several exams can run at the same time. A monthly test for the middle school and a final for Grade 9–12 can both be open. Always check the exam name at the top of a screen before you save.

1. Register the exam

Exams → Exam Setup

The list shows every exam already registered: name, semester, which grades it applies to, grading scheme, start and end dates, how many papers exist, and whether it is marked Final.

Add exam registers a new exam. The pencil edits a registration. The trash icon deletes one.

Save before you leave the dialog. The new row appears on Exam Setup. Open Datesheet on that page jumps to the next stage.

2. Define the grading scale

Exams → Marks Grading

The scheme is chosen on the exam registration, not on each paper.

1. Choose the academic year, campus, and grading scheme.
2. Each row is one letter: % From, % Up to, and Pass or Fail.
3. The sample scale is A+ from 90 to 100, then A, B, C, D, and F from 0 to 49.99 as Fail.
4. Add Grade inserts another band. The trash icon removes a band. Bands must not overlap, and together they must cover 0 to 100.
5. Load default scale fills the common scale if you are starting from empty.
6. Save Grading Scale stores it.

On the result card, a student’s percentage is compared with these bands. 81.25% with this scale is grade A. A student below 50% is F and Fail.

3. Build the datesheet

Exams → Datesheet

Filter by exam, class, subject, and teacher. The grid shows date, time, paper name, class, subject, teacher, and status (Draft or Published).

Tick Email, SMS, or WhatsApp before you publish. Those channels tell students and guardians. A channel works only after it is configured under Communication. Refresh reloads the list.

Create the draft

1. Choose the Exam and Campus.
2. Choose sections, or leave All sections.
3. Starting date, ending date, and daily start/end time come from the exam. You can narrow the working days inside that window.
4. Set Free days between papers when a class should not sit on consecutive days.
5. List holidays as dates separated by commas. Those days are skipped.
6. Tick Saturday and Sunday only if the school holds exams on those days. Unticked weekend days are skipped.
7. Press Build Preview. The system writes one paper per class per subject, using each section’s subject discipline. A class does not get two subjects on the same date. The preview is not saved yet.
8. Read the proposed grid: date, time, section, subject, teacher, and maximum marks.
9. Press Generate Draft Datesheet only when the preview is correct. A success line tells you how many papers were saved, for example “52 papers”.

Review the draft

Set Status to Active and pick the exam. Draft rows can be opened and changed. Published papers are locked until you unpublish them.

Tailor the campus matrix

1. Open the Print matrix tab. Set scope to Active, then choose the exam and the campus.
2. Tick the grades that should appear on the printed sheet.
3. To add a day that is not already in the grid, type the date under New exam date and press Add date row.
4. Click a subject cell to change that grade’s paper. Click + in an empty cell to place a subject still left in that grade’s subject discipline.
5. A subject appears only once for that grade.

• Choose another subject from Replace with remaining subject to swap the paper.
• Move from another date takes a subject already placed on a different day and moves it here.
• Delete clears the day for that grade.
• Related shows marks, seating, and other records already tied to that paper. Do not delete a cell that already has marks or seats unless you intend to clear that work.

One class still cannot have two subjects on the same date. The save is refused when that clash exists.

Print the datesheet

On the print matrix, press Print datesheet. Choose Microsoft Print to PDF to keep a file, or a real printer. The sheet shows the school name, exam name, and each date against each grade.

Publish the datesheet

1. Press Create/Publish Date Sheet.
2. Select the exam and campus. The dialog shows how many papers are still draft and how many are already published.
3. Tick the notification channels.
4. Show/Edit drafted Date sheet returns you to the draft if something is still wrong.
5. Publish Date sheet sends the draft papers to Published and notifies students and guardians.
6. Delete date sheet removes a draft that should not be used. Do not delete a sheet that already has seating or marks.

4. Seat the students

Exams → Exam Seating Plan

Choose halls for each exam day

Press Create new seating plan.

1. Select the exam and the campus. The plan name fills in from those two.
2. The grid lists every exam day: the date, how many papers, how many students sit that day, and the hall the system suggests.
3. The system picks the smallest hall that can hold that day’s students. When one smaller hall is not enough, it combines smaller halls instead of opening a much larger hall. Example: 222 students need Iqbal Hall (750) when the smaller halls cannot cover 222. A day with 138 students can use Main Examination Hall (100) plus Science Examination Hall (64) and leave Iqbal Hall free.
4. Press Edit on a day if you want different halls. The ticked halls must still cover that day’s student count.
5. Press Save plan.

Manage halls opens the hall catalog if a room is missing or its size is wrong. Create the hall before you rely on it in the plan.

Read the saved plan

Details opens a printable summary: halls in the plan, each day’s student load against hall capacity, and every published paper with its class size. Close returns to the plan list.

Add or edit a hall

A hall belongs to one campus. Enter a hall code, a hall name, the number of rows, and the number of columns. Capacity is rows × columns. Room No 16 with 5 rows and 6 columns holds 30 students. Location is a note, such as Main Building.

Save hall. The hall can then be ticked on a seating plan. Edit a hall before seats are allocated. Changing rows or columns after students are seated does not move those students; re-allocate the day if the room layout changed.

Put each student in a seat

Days that already have seats show View, Edit, and Delete. Days that are not seated yet show only Allocate Seats to Students.

1. Confirm the exam term.
2. Select the date row.
3. The papers for that date are listed by grade and section. One subject per class is ticked by default so different grades can share a hall. Do not tick two subjects for the same class in one sitting.
4. The suggested halls are already ticked from the master plan. You can change the ticks. The chosen capacity must cover the distinct students.
5. Press Allocate Seats to Students and confirm.

The system fills seats from the front of the hall and keeps students of the same paper from sitting in a way that lets them share work. Empty seats at the back of a larger hall are hidden on the printed map.

View, replace, or remove a day’s seats

Each cell shows the seat code, the student, and the class. Print sends the map to the printer. Close window leaves the map. The plan list on the original tab is unchanged.

Edit asks Replace seat allocation? Press Replace seats to throw away that day’s seats and build them again. Use this when a student joined, a paper moved, or you want the room mixed again. Delete removes that day’s seats only. It does not delete the datesheet and it does not remove seats for other dates.

5. Decide who may sit, then print the admit card

Eligibility rules

Exams → Eligibility

An admit card is issued only when the student meets the rules for each subject.

1. Choose the published exam, campus, grade, and section.
2. The left list is the published papers for that class. Select one subject, or set rules for all subjects in the grade.
3. Set the four gates:
   • Minimum attendance % — the student must have at least this attendance. The sample uses 75%.
   • Homework clearance — homework must be clear.
   • Fee clearance — the fee balance that blocks the exam must be clear.
   • Disciplinary clearance — no open discipline block.
4. Save criteria. Rules are stored for the selected subject. Use All subjects in this grade when the same rule applies to every paper of that grade on that campus.
5. The student table shows attendance, fee, homework, and discipline, then an automatic decision. A reason such as “Attendance below 75.00%” explains a refusal.

Automatic checks stay in force until an authorized person records a manual decision.

• Automatic keeps the rule result.
• Eligible allows the student even when a rule failed. Use this only when the principal or another authorized person has approved the exception.
• Not eligible blocks the student even when the rules passed.

Save the row. The reason column should say why the exception was granted. The admit card then shows Eligible or Not eligible for that subject.

Issue and print the roll-number slip

Exams → Admit Cards

1. Choose the published exam, campus, grade, and section.
2. Press Evaluate & issue. The system rebuilds eligibility from the saved rules and attaches the seat from the seating plan.
3. The list shows each student, attendance, fee balance, how many subjects, and Eligible or not.
4. Open a student to see every paper: date, subject, decision, and location (hall, row, and column). A subject outside the student’s subject discipline is not listed. A paper with no seat yet shows no location; go back and allocate that date.

Print opens the slips. Each slip has the school name, the student, the overall decision, and a row for every paper with the hall and seat. Choose the printer or Microsoft Print to PDF. Print one batch per section so the slips stay with the class teacher.

Give the slip to the student before the first paper. The invigilator uses the same seat map printed in the seating step.

6. Question papers

Exams → Paper Making

Assign to default teachers assigns every paper to the subject teacher. Edit assignment on a row changes that one paper. The columns are subject, default teacher, setter, status, due date, and whether the file has been received.

Change one assignment

• Paper setter is the teacher who must write the paper.
• Due by is the deadline. The suggested date is 14 days before the exam date.
• Use default teacher puts the subject teacher back.
• Save assignment stores the setter and the due date. The row status becomes Assigned.

Set what the school pays for writing a paper

Enter the amount the setter is paid for one paper, tick Active, and press Save rates. Inactive rows are not claimed. Finance uses this amount when the paper is accepted.

Collect the paper

• Choose File and attach the question paper. The file is stored with the school’s study materials.
• Online assessment / bank paper ID is optional, for an online MCQ paper instead of a file.
• Notes are for the exam office.
• Submit paper sends it. Open Question Bank is for linking a bank paper.

7. Exam day: attendance, marking, and marks

Exams → Attendance and Paper Marking

Each row is one subject paper. It shows how many students are Present, Absent, or not yet marked, who the checker is, when the scripts are due back, whether marks exist, and the fee claim.

Work across the row from left to right: Attendance, then Assign, then Marks Entry, then Verify & claim.

Mark who sat the paper

• Set each student to Present or Absent. Add a remark when the office must keep a reason.
• All Present and All Absent mark the whole list. Use them only when they are true, then fix the exceptions.
• Save attendance.

Give the scripts to a teacher

• Checker teacher is the marker. This can be a different person from the class teacher.
• Due / return by is when the marked scripts must be back. The suggested date is 7 days after the paper.
• Save assignment.

The dashboard then shows the checker’s name and the due date. Re-Assign changes the checker before the claim is verified.

Enter the marks

Open Marks Entry on the row, or use Exams → Marks Entry and press Add mark on the paper.

Only students whose section subject discipline includes this subject are listed. A student marked Absent has no mark boxes.

1. Enter theory and, where the paper has a practical, practical marks. The total and the letter grade update from the grading scale.
2. Save draft stores the marks and still allows corrections.
3. Import CSV loads marks from a file when the checker returned a spreadsheet. Check the draft on screen after import.
4. Lock & submit freezes the marks. Changes are not allowed after the lock. Lock only when the draft has been read back against the scripts.
5. Approve results is the admin or principal step. Results are not published until they are approved. Approval is what Publish Results waits for.

If a mark was locked by mistake, an authorized user must follow the school’s correction path before approval. Do not approve a paper you have not checked.

Pay the checker

Example: Grade 1 Computer at 500, Mathematics at 700. Tick Active and press Save rates. The claim amount is the rate multiplied by the number of present students whose marks were saved. Absent students are not paid for.

When attendance is saved, the checker is assigned, and marks are entered, Verify & claim appears. The confirmation names the subject and the teacher. Verify checks the work and creates a finance expense. Cancel if the present count or the rate is still wrong.

8. Result cards

Exams → Result Cards

Cards load only when all four filters are set: Exam, Campus, Grade, and Section. A grade with a single section selects that section for you.

The card shows the subjects in that student’s subject discipline only. A Matric Science student is not given Computer or a general Science paper that is outside the discipline. The total is the sum of the subjects actually on the card.

You can preview from entered marks before the formal publish.

Print opens the browser print layout. Each card shows the student, code, roll number, campus, grade, section, overall percentage, letter grade, grade position, section position, attendance, then each subject with maximum, obtained, percent, grade, and position. Class-teacher remarks and signature lines for class teacher, examiner, and principal are at the bottom.

9. Publish results to students

Exams → Publish Results

Tick Email, SMS, or WhatsApp before you publish. At least one channel is required. The channel must be configured under Communication, or the system asks you to open that setup first. Preview opens the cards in a new window and does not publish them.

Publish every ready grade, or only some grades

Press Publish. The page asks who should receive the results.

• All ready grades publishes every grade whose papers are approved. Grades whose marks are not approved yet are left out. Come back and publish them later. They do not block the grades that are ready.
• Selected grades and sections lets you tick a grade, or only Section A or Section B of that grade. A grade whose papers are not all approved is disabled and marked as waiting.

In the picture, Grade 1 and Grade 5 are ticked and Grade 2, 3, and 4 are not. Publish selected sends cards and notifications only for the ticked classes.

Confirm the message. It names the exam and the grades or sections. Cancel if the list is wrong. Nothing is sent until you confirm.

After a partial publish, refresh the list. Draft cards drop by the number of students you published, published cards rise by the same number, and the status reads Partially Published. Repeat Publish for the remaining grades when their marks are approved. When the last grade is published and no grade still has draft cards, the status becomes Published.

10. Read the results

Exams → Results & Analytics

Choose the exam. Charts appear after result cards exist (draft or published).

• Pass vs fail uses 50% as the pass line.
• Grade distribution counts students on each letter grade.
• Percentage bands show how many students fell in each range from 0–39 up to 90–100.
• Subject averages compare subjects. Only subjects inside each student’s subject discipline are counted.
• Class / section comparison shows average and pass rate by grade and section.
• Pass rate by subject shows the share of students at or above 50% in that subject.
• Subject × grade is a heat map. A darker cell is a higher average.
• Top performer by grade and subject names the highest student in each grade for each subject.
• Top performers lists the top students with exam rank, class position, and section position.
• Relative weak subjects finds students who are strong overall but much weaker in one subject, grouped by the teacher of that paper. Open a row to see the students. Use this in the subject meeting, not as a punishment list.

Explain on a chart gives a short note on how to read it. Click a bar, cell, or row to open the students behind that number. Click again to close it.

11. See which stage is still open

Exams → Exam Stage Summary

This is a read-only board for the principal. Filter by academic year, exam, and campus, and optionally by grade and section. Each row is one subject paper. Total students is the class roster. Absent is the exam-day absence count.

Work down the first column that is not green. That is the next job for the exam office.

12. Class assessments

Exams → Class Assessments

It does not use seating, admit cards, or Publish Results.

1. Filter by campus, grade, and section.
2. Add assessment sets the date, type (for example Quiz), subject, class, and total marks.
3. Add marks obtained opens the mark list.
4. The publish action sends the assessment to parents and to the student portal on the configured channels.

Remarks are optional. Save before you close. Keep formal exam marks on Attendance and Paper Marking. Keep weekly quizzes here.

What each person usually does

A user who cannot see a menu item does not have that permission. Ask an administrator to grant it in Access Management. Hiding a button is not a fault in the exam.

Rules that prevent bad results

• One class sits one subject on one date. The datesheet refuses a clash.
• A student sits only the subjects in the section’s subject discipline. Marks entry, the admit card, and the result card all follow that list.
• An absent student cannot be given marks.
• Draft marks can be corrected. Locked marks cannot. Approved marks are the ones Publish Results will accept.
• A grade with unapproved papers cannot be published. Other grades of the same exam can still be published.
• The exam status stays Partially Published until every grade is published.
• After the datesheet is published, the exam dates and the grade audience cannot be changed, and the exam cannot be deleted.
• Seating uses the smallest hall that fits. A very large hall is used only when the smaller halls cannot hold that day’s students.
• Email, SMS, and WhatsApp send only if that channel is configured under Communication and you ticked it.

Checklist before the first paper

• Exam saved, with the correct grades and grading scheme.
• Datesheet published, and the printed matrix matches the notice board.
• Every exam day has seats, and the invigilator has the room map.
• Eligibility rules saved, exceptions recorded, admit cards printed.
• Every paper has a setter, a file, and a making-rate if the setter is to be paid.
• Checking rates saved.
• Attendance will be marked on the morning of each paper.

Checklist before parents see results

• Every present student has marks. Absent students have none.
• Marks are locked and approved for the grades you intend to publish.
• Result Cards for one section look right: subjects match the discipline, total matches the subjects, grade matches the scale.
• The right channel is ticked.
• You published either all ready grades or only the grades and sections that should go out today.
• The status is Partially Published if any grade is still waiting, and Published only when every grade has gone out.

Where to click